Visa-free travel brings fears of virus rebound in Japan

Fears of a new COVID-19 wave loom in Japan as the country prepares to allow visa-free entry for individual travelers after border restrictions of more than two years.

Starting from Tuesday, individual visitors will be allowed to enter Japan and visa waivers will be reinstated from 68 countries and regions, including the United States, Australia, Singapore and South Korea.

The move scraped a series of COVID-19 border rules and entry requirements are almost back to what it was before the pandemic. Before Tuesday, Japan only allowed package tours and required visas for all visitors and set a cap on daily arrivals at 50,000.